Commission calls on Member States to ensure
correct implementation of the First Rail Package

The European Commission sent letters of formal
notice to 24 Member States today, regarding their failure to implement the First
Railway Package legislation properly. As part of its duty to monitor the
transposition of EU legislation into national law, the Commission came across
failure or improper implementation of the legislation in Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland,
France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The
creation of an integrated railway market will be a key factor in boosting its
efficiency and competitiveness, as well as a further step in ensuring
sustainable mobility in Europe.

"Proper transposition of the first railway package is essential for
creating competition in the European railway markets and increasing the
competitiveness of railways in relation to other modes of transport," said
Commission Vice-President in charge of Transport, Mr Antonio Tajani.

In May 2006, the Commission
found[1] that, although Member
States had introduced the necessary legislation, some countries needed to take
further measures to ensure an effective regulatory framework as well as the
satisfactory functioning of the railway markets. The deadline for implementation
of the First Package was March 2003.

Following a detailed analysis of the conformity of national legislations, the
Commission mainly noted shortcomings such as:

Lack of independence of the infrastructure manager in relation to railway
operators;

Insufficient implementation of the rules of the Directive on track access
charging, such as the absence of a performance regime to improve the performance
of the railway network and the lack of incentives of the Infrastructure Manager
to reduce costs and charges;

Failure to set up an independent Regulatory Body with strong powers to
remedy competition problems in the railway
sector.

[1] Report on the
implementation of the First Railway Package, COM(2006)189 final of 3 May
2006